Little Lou Turns TWO!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVIE MARELLE!!!  WE LOVE OUR GIRL!!  TWO YEARS OF JOY!!!

 

This past year has brought so many firsts for our precious little girl.  First playdates, first pony tails, first words, gymnastics, and first friends.  What I have loved most about our girl is her bright personality.  She is a total spazz and we love every second. She calls herself "Ev Relle" and loves to laugh at herself.  Her love for baby dolls continues and she actually could play all day long with a box of baby wipes.  She loves to clean her babies and change their diapers.  EM also loves a purse filled with all kinds of accessories: bracelets, sunglasses, "lipstick", rings, brushes, etc.  Her newest thing is that she loves to brush her hair and also brush anyone else who will let her.  We recently started doing her hair in pigtails and I could die over them every time.  She calls them "pig-toes" and always says "I-cute" when I finish with the last rubberband.  Her obsession with headbands continues and she has now confiscated a few of mine.  We have slowly eased her into calling her "nah-nah" a "night night nah-nah" and she has done GREAT about leaving it in her bed during the day and only using it in the car.  I am so relieved.  Though she is strong willed, she responds very well to being reasoned with if she is given details of the situation and her CHOICES.  The girl loves to be in charge of her own destiny.  Soo, I have found it is all in how you present the situation with this smart little girl!  Just recently, she has paired a new lovey with her beloved Meme.  It looks the same--just fresh, new, and pink and she has named it "Kitty Kat,"  Meme and Kitty Kat go everywhere with us.  Anytime she gets disciplined or does not get her way, she immediately asks for Meme and Nah-nah--self-soothing at its finest!

Her strong willed nature has shown it's true colors a time or two for sure.  If she has been put in time out for hitting her brother and then is told to say "Sorry Brother," she will LITERALLY refuse and refuse and refuse.  There is no convincing her and no matter how many times she had to sit back in time out, she would not change her mind.  It was hysterical, I mean SCARY.  Finally, I realized she just was mad at the way I was speaking to her and we were just battling wills.  Once I started talking in a sing-songy voice and dropped the firm Mommy act, she was all smiles and walked right up to that Brother and cheerfully chirped, "SORRY, BRODER!!!"  What?!  Seriously?  This has also become a funny issue (for now) when she is eating.  She tends to get ahead of herself and choke.  I will remind her to chew up her food.  Her response: Ev Relle no chew food!  To sum things up, she likes to walk into things on her own accord.  She has even gone as far as closing her eyes in pictures because I have asked her brother to smile with his eyes OPEN.  The girl is a trip.

Evie Marelle's verbal skills have sky rocketed in the last month.  She is speaking in sentences all day long.  Her favorite thing is to go around the house and ask me if something belongs to her by saying, "This is mine?"  She also loves to question my every decision by saying, "Why not?!"  I have been quite surprised at her ability to get ideas across using long broken sentences, especially since she was just grunting about 3 months ago.  She has remained an excellent eater and literally will take 20 to 30 minutes to sit and ENJOY her lunch--every single bit.  She will take that little spoon and scrape out every.little.last.bite of applesauce from each little plastic crevice.  Food is a big part of her life and it makes my life so easy in that department!!

Ev is very social and conscious of her friendships.  She loves to go through roll call if we are going to meet people for lunch.  We had our first playdate without the little girl's mother in attendance and she loved every single second.  She plays well alone, but does not like to find herself in a room alone.  I will hear her holler, "Mommy, WHERE ARE YOU?"  

Her addiction to technology has probably replaced the pacifier obsession.  Every morning she will go through requesting various gadgets in different ways no matter how many times I deny her.  She even put the words "Ipad and Itouch" into the song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands."  Geez!!

Probably the greatest marker from this past year besides her spunky and fun nature, is her love for art.  She really and truly colors all day long.  All I have to do is draw a ton of hearts on a piece of paper and she loves to go and color in every single one.  After finishing, she will say "one more time" and do it all over again.  Crayons are our greatest ally around here...oh and stickers.  I might as well have packed up her toys the last month because she only goes into the craft closet to play.

I can't believe our girl has turned two years old.  It is bittersweet for sure.  Though she keeps us laughing, her sweet heart is what has truly won us over.  To hear her say "love you forever Mommy" or "love you SO MUCH" just kills me every single time.  She is a doll and the squishiest, squashiest, schmooshiest little thing.  Her head and heart may be old for her age, but I love that she still FEELS like a baby.  Her poor cheeks do not get a break from her crazy Mama and luckily, she has not caught on yet.  She is such a gift to us!!

Much love sweet Lulu!!!!

Our Boy Turns 4.

 (Warning--Obnoxious amount of detail to follow.  Purely for our own recollection).
 This last year has been a huge year of growth and maturity for our Daveman.  For some reason I thought four year olds were still toddlers.  This is absolutely false.  My baby is a little boy.  He is full of the sillies and loves to speak in random non-languages.  I have died over hearing the kind of jokes he and his friends have made up that make no sense at all.  They crack up with laughter and are perfectly happy with their little oblivious four year old sense of humor.

David still loves to dress-up and often goes through 3 and 4 costumes a day.  He has become very opinionated about what he wears and prefers to wear hats and boots to school every single day.  He loves big boy clothes: basketball shorts and t-shirts.  I never thought I would let my little bud wear mesh shorts before elementary school.  Never say never.

This year has brought all kinds of growing up, from his first experience in team sports (soccer), first field trip, first real bike ride, first time really making his own friends and truly loving them, and first time spending the majority of his week at school.  David has also grown tremendously in his eating habits.  He loves broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and also downs tilapia under the guise of chicken :).  I am so proud of how brave he has become, though he still will not come within five feet of a bouncy house.  According to him, "they are too squishy."   However, he will fly down hills coasting on his balance bike, do flips on our bed, and attack all kinds of playground stuff he would never have attempted last year.   His favorite interests include Auburn football, Spartan football, marching bands, army men/camo, airplanes/helicopters, and legos/tinkertoys.

His mind is very spatial and he loves to build entire cities in his room out of every single toy he has.  Everything serves a purpose and he will notice if one thing has been moved out of place.  He has also impressed me with how well he has done in school.  I was nervous because we did 4K a year early and jumped from 2 to 4 days a week in just one year.  David is very responsible and conscious of whatever assignment he has been given.  He loves to remind me what is due when and will not let me live down the ONE time we forgot his "I" collage.  I am very aware of how "upset and angry" he was with me on that day :).  Did I mention that he is extremely good at labeling his feelings :)??  School has been tremendous for him--he knows all of his upper and lowercase letters and can write pretty much any one of them.  He loves to practice writing and has memorized how to write all the names in our family.  I can only hope his affinity for school continues over the years.

What I really want to remember from this past year is how incredibly tender, loving, and affectionate our bud has remained.  Though he becomes more of a boy everyday, he is all about expressing his undying love for all of us spontaneously throughout the day.  He really loves verbal affirmation and always tells me how much he likes it when I say "good job bud".  He responds extremely well to a sticker chart--the boy loves encouragement!!  He is still very conscious of right and wrong and is very sensitive to my feelings towards him.  I have to be careful when I find myself frustrated with him because he is easily wounded.  It is the best feeling in the world to have him whisper in your ear multiple times a day that you are the best mom in the whole wide world. I am far from it, but he definitely makes me look I know what I am doing.  I praise God for the gift of being his Mommy and pray He comes to know Christ as his Savior at a young age.  Though I might could hope or dream for some certain type of life for him, I really just ask the Lord that our boy learn to cling to His faith all the days of his life and walk in the truth mapped out for us in scripture.  No matter what the details end up being, I will be one proud Mama if this boy loves the Lord first and foremost.
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